a TRUE fishing story!

So, after "complaining" that I haven't gotten to go fishing hardly at all so far this season (compared to Troy's many trips out!!), Troy said "let's go!" So after work this afternoon, we headed out to our favorite fishing hole. The weather was wet, windy and cold. But we hunkered down and got to work catching fish. We put our hooks in the water and with-in 5 minutes, we had a zzzziing!! Troy grabbed the rod and the line just kept going and going. Before he could get his bearings though, all of a sudden that zing song ended and he pulled in an empty line - whatever it was broke off the hooks. So we continued on our way and after awhile - it seemed like a long time, but was probably no more than a half hour - I was starting to get kinda bored. So I said to nobody in particular "Well, this spot is pretty dead. We might as well try the other spot." 2 seconds later, ZZZZIIING!!!!!!!! My line was making smoke! So I start the fun of playing the fish and finally, after several runs, I get it to the boat. Troy nets it and in pulls a 24 lb King salmon. YEAH!!!!
After rebaiting my hooks, I put them back in the water and the second I got to the depth I wanted to be at, there it goes again! I bring in another nice sized King. And then I hook into a Sockeye. And then another King. Troy is enjoying netting my fish for me, but I think he was starting to wonder if HE was going to get to catch a fish tonight. By this time, we start to realize how much work we have ahead after we get home with all the proccessing now that needs to be done so we decide to give it a little more time and then head in. Just about the time we started thinking it was time to go, just like that ZZZZIING!! There goes Troy's line finally. He worked hard on this one. He would get it up, and down it would go. Then he would get it to the surface again, and down it went again. This happened several times, each time we had to chase it so we wouldn't run out of line. We had guesses as to what he was bringing up - the popular guess was a lively 17 lb King. They like to play that way at that size. So he finally gets it up to the boat and I go to net it. We still haven't had a visual on it yet. As I lean over the side to see where it was, there it is - not a King, not even a salmon. Instead I am looking at a rather HUGE halibut!!

So I tell troy that we are going to need something besides the net to get this one on board. So I throw things this way and that trying to get to the gaff. I give it to Troy and he gaffs the fish. He is standing on the extended transom and as he gaffs it, the fish went crazy. All that kept him from going overboard was catching himself on the kicker. We don't have our pistol, so we can't shoot it; we don't have it on halibut line, so we can't tie it to the side of the boat; we don't even have it on a halibut rod, so we couldn't really do much with it except pull it into the boat. Well, anyone who has caught a big halibut knows what I mean when I say the thing went insane!! It started flipping, flopping, crashing, thrashing and destroying. If you get in the way, you are going down with a broken leg. So we are all diving for cover. By the time it was over, the kids and I are all standing up on the seats and Troy is dancing around trying to stay clear. He was finally able to gaff it in the brain and after a minute it started losing the battle. We ended up with a shattered rod holder and slime and blood EVERYWHERE!! We are lucky that was all that happened.

It measured at 53 inches and weighed 75 pounds. In this photo below, it's mouth is touching the ground so you can see how much taller than Andrew it was. At one point during the battle to bring it in, I told Troy that I just hoped it (the salmon we THOUGHT we were bringing in!) wasn't bigger than my 24 pounder. Wow, did I ever have it coming!!

It is a comforting and satisfying feeling to have our freezer filling back up again with the new season. Now we can eat again! hahaha just kidding =^ )